Introduction

One of our greatest needs as human

beings is to be loved.
For example, we may act irresponsibly in a
desperate attempt to get attention.
The good news from Gods Word is that
somebody does.
1 John 4:8,16
No one attribute of God is any more
important than any other, and all His
attributes are expressed in conjunction with
each other.

It would be rather presumptuous to

assume that we can exhaust the subject
of Gods love in one brief chapter, but let
us try to scratch the surface and begin to
explore this fathomless truth. Here are
eight characteristics of Gods love.

Gods Love Is Self-Giving

Love involves action.

John 17:24
Yet He did create. Why?
Matthew 7:11
James 1:17

Gods Love Is Sacrificial

For this is the way God loved the world: He
gave his one and only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him will not
perish but have eternal
John 3:16
But God demonstrates his own love for us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
Romans 5:8
By this the love of God is revealed in us:
that God has sent his one and only Son
into the world so that we may live through
him. 10 In this is love: not that we have
loved God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our
sins.
1 John 4:9-10

It was no less of a sacrifice for God the Son than it was for God the Father. His
willingness to offer Himself was the summit of sacrificial love.
have been crucified with Christ, and it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So
the life I now live in the body, I live because
of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Husbands, love your wives just as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for her
Ephesians 5:25
No one has greater love than this that
one lays down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

Gods Love Is Unconditional

One of the most amazing things about
Gods love is that it is extended to us when
we do not deserve it and continues
steadfast and strong even when we do not
respond to it. In other words, His love is
unconditional.
For if while we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of his
Son, how much more, since we have been
reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
Romans 5:10
And you were at one time strangers and
enemies in your minds as expressed
through your evil deeds,
Colossians 1:21
Deuteronomy 7:7-8

Gods Love Is Eternal

This message also was given originally to
the nation Israel, but its application is for
every true child of God.
In a far-off land the Lord will manifest
himself to them. He will say to them, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. That is
why I have continued to be faithful to you.
Jeremiah 31:3
That everlasting love reaches into eternity past.
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in
creation will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:39
But Luke informs us that they were more interested in
arguing about which one of them was the greatest

But Luke informs us that they were more

interested in arguing about which one of them
was the greatest
A dispute also started among them over
which of them was to be regarded as the
greatest
Luke 22:24
Just before the Passover feast, Jesus
knew that his time had come to depart from
this world to the Father. Having loved his
own who were in the world, he now loved
them to the very end.
John 13:1
How can we ever exhaust the love of God!
The love of an infinite God must be infinite
love. Paul called it a love that surpasses
knowledge
and thus to know the love of Christ that
surpasses knowledge, so that you may be
filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:19

far greater than our finite minds can grasp.

He also called it a great love
But God, being rich in mercy, because of
his great love with which he loved us,
Ephesians 2:4
He referred to its breadth, its length, its
depth, and its height.
you may be able to comprehend with all
the saints what is the breadth and length
and height and depth,
Ephesians 3:18
Gods love has no limit. It is described in F.
M. Lehmans gospel song:
Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were
the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And
every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above, Would
drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho
stretched from sky to sky.

Gods Love Is Holy

When some people hear that Gods love is
self-giving, sacrificial, unconditional,
eternal, and infinite, they get the idea that it
is merely soft, sloppy sentimentality, that
God is an indulgent Father who gives us
everything we want and conveniently turns
His head the other way when we sin.
For he chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world that we may be
holy and unblemished in his sight in love.
Ephesians 1:4
For this is the love of God: that we keep his
commandments. And his commandments
do not weigh us down,
1 John 5:3
If you love me, you will obey my
commandments. 15:10 If you obey my
commandments, you will remain in my
love, just as I have obeyed my Fathers
commandments and remain in his love.
John 14:15; 15:10

God will use every loving means at His disposal

to encourage our obedience. He does that
because He loves us.
It is the evidence of His love for us
And have you forgotten the exhortation
addressed to you as sons? My son, do
not scorn the Lords discipline or give
up when he corrects you. 6 For the
Lord disciplines the one he loves and
chastises every son he accepts.
Hebrews 12:5-6
God says the same thing. Concerning His people
Israel we read, In all their affliction He was
afflicted
Through all that they suffered, he suffered
too. The messenger sent from his very
presence delivered them. In his love and
mercy he protected them; he lifted them up
and carried them throughout ancient times.
Isaiah 63:9

Gods Love Is Comforting

That would mean more to them than all the
material things in the world because it is
the evidence of true love, and true love
brings security and comfort.
Listen to the Apostle John again: There is no fear
in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear
involves punishment, and the one who fears is not
perfected in love

There is no fear in love, but perfect love

drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment.
The
one
who
fears
punishment has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18

Gods Love is Life-Changing

Most of us long to be loving people, able to
give love to our spouses, our children, our
fellow believers, our unsaved
acquaintances, and, most of all, to the Lord
Himself. But we find it so difficult.
We love, said the Apostle John, because He first
loved us
We love because he loved us first.
1 John 4:19
It really is trueGod loves us. Jesus said it
plainly: For the Father Himself loves you
For the Father himself loves you, because
you have loved me and have believed that
I came from God.
John 16:27

It is to our advantage to know and believe the

love that He has for us.
And we have come to know and to believe the
love that God has in us. God is love, and the
one who resides in love resides in God, and God
resides in him.
1 John 4:16

1) God loves us with Atoning love.

God so loved the world, that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through him.
(John3:16-17)

2) God loves us with Calling love.